P.J. Hoover's Blog, page 54

THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER ARC Winner!

Thank you to all who entered! I'm looking forward to lots of great new books coming up in the next few months, so definite watch out!

The winner of THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)


is...

CORRINE O'FLYNN at Inside Looking out!

*****

And don't forget I'm also giving away:

BLOOD MAGIC by Tessa Gratton (Random House, May 24, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

BLOOD MAGIC by Tessa Gratton ARC Giveaway

I've been reading the most OSUM book by one of my agent-sisters (we both are repped by Laura Rennert at Andrea Brown Lit), and I'm so psyched to offer the ARC up for giveaway. There are so many great things to say about this book, but here are just a few to get your mind's churning.

First there's the cover. It's so eye-catching and unique, and yet it still fits in totally with today's paranormal YA audience.
Second there's the story. It's kept me hooked since page one, and I can't wait to see how it ends.
Third there are the characters. Seriously amazing.
Fourth there is the romance. A single word can sum it up. Wow.

BLOOD MAGIC by Tessa Gratton (Random House, May 24, 2011)


From Amazon:

This page-turning debut novel will entice fans who like their paranormal romances dark and disturbing. It's a natural next-read for fans of Stephanie Meyer, Carrie Jones, and Becca Fitzpatrick. But instead of mythical creatures, blood magic has everything to do with primal human desires like power, wealth, and immortality. Everywhere Silla Kennicott turns she sees blood. She can't stop thinking about her parents alleged murder-suicide. She is consumed by a book filled with spells that arrives mysteriously in the mail. The spells share one common ingredient: blood, and Silla is more than willing to cast a few. What's a little spilled blood if she can uncover the truth? And then there's Nick—the new guy at school who makes her pulse race. He has a few secrets of his own and is all too familiar with the lure of blood magic. Drawn together by a combination of fate and chemistry, Silla and Nick must find out who else in their small Missouri town knows their secret and will do anything to take the book and magic from Silla.

Yeah, like I said, wow!

Source of book: From publisher by request

*****

For your chance to win this ARC, all you need to do is:

1) Follow this blog
2) Comment on this blog post

For extra entries:

1) Blog about this contest and leave a comment telling me
2) Tweet about this contest and leave a comment telling me
3) Also, if you've never won one of my contests, please tell me in the comments, and you'll get an extra entry!

And make sure you leave me a way to get in contact with you when you win!

The contest will run through midnight on Friday, April 1, 2011!

*****

Don't forget I'm also giving away:

THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER.

RELEASE DAY FOR WITHER and Winners!

Happy release day to...

WITHER (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster, March 22, 2011)


and thank you to all the OSUM people who entered to win!

The winners of the brand-new hardcovers of WITHER are:

Vivien


Orchid


Laura


Reader Riah


Lorielle



*****

Visit tomorrow for another great giveaway, and don't forget I'm also giving away:

An ARC of THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER.

LUCKY LEPRECHAUN Winner!

OMG, so many entries for the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway! I am totally floored! I really hope you all stick around for more giveaways in the future because I have some great ones coming up!

The winner of the three books

RED MOON RISING by Peter Moore (Hyperion, February 8, 2011) (ARC)

LOW RED MOON by Ivy Devlin (the paranormal pseudonym for Elizabeth Scott) (Bloomsbury, September 2010) (ARC)

NIGHT RUNNER by Max Turner (St. Martin's, September 2009) (Paperback)

is...

Library Lady!

*****

Don't forget I'm also giving away:

Five finished copies of WITHER (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster, March 22, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!


An ARC of THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER.

BIG BOUFFANT Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered! You guys will all love this book. It's that cute.

The winner of BIG BOUFFANT by Kate Hosford, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown (Carolrhoda Books, April 2011)


is...
Karen!

****

Don't forget I'm also giving away:

Five finished copies of WITHER (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster, March 22, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!


An ARC of THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER.

Revisions are a lot like...

...remodeling the kitchen.

I am impatient by nature, but I have to teach myself to take my time.

I'm not afraid to jump right in and start striping old stain off.

I know anything I mess up can always be fixed.

There is so much to do, but, by taking it one step at a time, it will come out beautifully!


Day 2. No doors. No stuff. No stain.


Day 3. No doors. No stuff. Black paint.
I couldn't help but sing The Rolling Stones "Paint it, Black" when I started.


What are revisions like for you?

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be busy working on the kitchen :)

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway: VAMPIRES and WEREWOLVES Books!

I love doing these monthly giveaways care of Kathy Habel at I am a Reader, Not a Writer . Each month she organizes one in the spirit of the holidays, and this month, it's all about St. Patty's Day! So while you sip your green beer tonight, spend some time visiting all the blogs in the giveaway (see list below).

Up for giveaway this month are three books featuring your favorite paranormal creatures!



RED MOON RISING by Peter Moore (Hyperion, February 8, 2011) (ARC)


LOW RED MOON by Ivy Devlin (the paranormal pseudonym for Elizabeth Scott) (Bloomsbury, September 2010) (ARC)


NIGHT RUNNER by Max Turner (St. Martin's, September 2009) (Paperback)



From Amazon:

For RED MOON RISING:
Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing.

Ever since the development of synthetic blood – SynHeme – vamps have become society's elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it's best to pretend his wulf half doesn't even exist. But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms -- fantastic night vision; a keener-than-usual sense of smell; and headaches, right around the full moon.

Even though it's easy to be in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next few moon, and Danny's time is running out.

For LOW RED MOON:
The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans. As breathless as Twilight and as spooky as Shiver, this is a book to be devoured in one sitting—by an acclaimed YA author making her paranormal debut under the pseudonym Ivy Devlin.

For NIGHT RUNNER:
For Zack Thomson, living in the Nicholls Ward isn't so bad. After his parents died, he developed strange and severe allergies, and the mental institution was the only place where he could be properly looked after. As strange as it was, it was home. He could watch as much television as he wanted; his best friend Charlie visited him often enough; and Nurse Ophelia--the prettiest no-nonsense nurse ever--sometimes took him bowling. Of course, that didn't mean he had it easy. His allergies restricted his diet to strawberry smoothies, and being the only kid at the hospital could get lonely. But it never once crossed Zack's mind to leave...until the night someone crashed through the front doors and told him to run. Now he's on a race for answers--about his past, his parents, and his strange sickness--even as every step takes him closer to the darkest of truths.

Source of books: From publishers at conferences

For your chance to win these books, all you need to do is:

1) Follow this blog
2) Comment on this blog post

For extra entries:

1) Blog about this contest and leave a comment telling me
2) Tweet about this contest and leave a comment telling me
3) Also, if you've never won one of my contests, please tell me in the comments, and you'll get an extra entry!

And make sure you leave me a way to get in contact with you when you win!

The contest will run through midnight on Sunday, March 20, 2011!

*****

Don't forget I'm also giving away:

Five finished copies of WITHER (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster, March 22, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!



BIG BOUFFANT by Kate Hosford, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown (Carolrhoda Books, April 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!


*****

Here's a handy list of all the blogs on the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway!



Good Luck!

Newest Featured Sweetheart—Clay Smith

Hey Everyone! Clay Smith, the director of the awesome, best-in-the-country, Texas Book Festival, is our Featured Sweetheart this week! So when you get a chance, please head over to THE TEXAS SWEETHEARTS & SCOUNDRELS blog and check out what he has to say!

Calling all Trekkies: STARFLEET ACADEMY for the YA Crowd

Let me start by saying I am a devoted Trekkie.

There, we've gotten that out of the way. So every time I've been at B&N in the last four months and walked by the pretty table with all the YA books so nicely stacked, these books have been calling out to me. And one day, they called, and I had to buy them. Resistance was futile. (okay, please don't judge me).

THE EDGE (STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY) by Rudy Josephs*



THE DELTA ANOMALY (STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY) by Rick Barba*



What did I think of the Starfleet books?
Personally, I really enjoyed them. But we have to keep in mind my first statement in this blog post. I am a Trekkie. here are the basic things covered in the books:
Jim Kirk finds a new girlfriend.Jim Kirk saves the day.Jim Kirk has nice character development by showing flaws in his character.Uhura is a genius.Uhura and Spock have a wonderful romantic relationship developing that is oh-so-Vulcan.
Who would I recommend the book to?
Fans of Star Trek (of course)Young adults, boys and girls, who enjoyed the recent Star Trek movie.
So really, if you fall in either of these two categories, you should check one of these books out. I'd start with THE EDGE since it seems to chronologically come first.

Anyway, LIVE LONG AND PROSPER :)

*I have to say trying to find out who actually wrote the books was a challenge in itself. The book has no author listed on the front or on the spine.

From Amazon for THE EDGE:

A new Starfleet Academy series for teens--filled with romance and adventure! In The Competitive Edge, Kirk finds out how much of a toll the intense training classes and grueling schedule of academy life is taking on all the cadets, including himself. But some recruits seem better equipped to handle the challenges. Is there something that is giving them an edge? Kirk is determined to find out, especially since one of the cadets with a little something extra is his new girlfriend.

THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago ARC Giveaway

The premise of this novel rocks! Ever since I was in elementary school and learned about witchcraft and the Salem witch trials, I've loved the subject. I used to sneak looks at my mom's "black magic" books (now donated to Goodwill). So let's just say, witchcraft is a rocking subject to write about.

Up for giveaway today is

THE COVEN'S DAUGHTER by Lucy Jago (Hyperion, April 19, 2011)



For videos, I dug out this video of the author talking about the UK (?) release of the book (called MONTACUTE HOUSE).




From Amazon:

It's Spring again in the village of Montacute, and people want nothing more than to celebrate the season with maypole dances, festivals, and visits from the nobility. The festivities are dampened, though, when a young boy turns up dead outside the village. Then they learn that three other boys have also disappeared lately. To the parson, this tragedy is a perfect excuse to kick off the only thing guaranteed to get his spring-giddy parishioners back to church – a witch hunt.

Cecily may have occasional visions, but that doesnt' make her a witch! Fatherless and without friends, Cess knows she's lucky to be employed by a grand estate like Montacute House, even if it is as a poultry girl.

On her thirteenth birthday, Cess finds a precious locket in one of her chicken coops, a strange discovery that's quickly overshadowed by her best friend John's disappearance two days later. The parson has already started planting rumors that the missing boys were bewitched, and the villagers think Cecily may be the culprit.

The only way Cess can prove her innocence is by finding John, but she's soon embroiled in a plot that threatens her world and forces her to draw upon powers she never knew she possessed

Witchcraft, politics and religious ambition combine in this gripping and wonderfully realized novel set in the Somerset of the 1500s.

Source of books: From publisher at conference


For your chance to win this ARC, all you need to do is:

1) Follow this blog
2) Comment on this blog post

For extra entries:

1) Blog about this contest and leave a comment telling me
2) Tweet about this contest and leave a comment telling me
3) Also, if you've never won one of my contests, please tell me in the comments, and you'll get an extra entry!

And make sure you leave me a way to get in contact with you when you win!

The contest will run through midnight on Friday, March 25, 2011!

*****

Don't forget I'm also giving away:


Five finished copies of WITHER (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster, March 22, 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!


BIG BOUFFANT by Kate Hosford, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown (Carolrhoda Books, April 2011)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!